'Creating a Layer of AI on DPI': Vriddhi CEO Sixit Bhatta on Building ‘Digital Public Intelligence’

Asianet News English

Digital Public Intelligence

Transcript

00:00I have with me Sikshad Bhatta. He is the founder of Tuttle, a ride-hailing company from Nepal.

00:06First of all, Sikshad, thank you so much for speaking with Asianet News.

00:09Why don't we begin talking about what is it that the company does?

00:13Well, I founded this ride-hailing company for the very first time in Nepal back in 2016.

00:18So, right now I am no longer associated with it.

00:22And now I am involved in setting up something to do with artificial intelligence.

00:27That's Vridhi you are leading right now. What is it?

00:29We are trying to build up not only AI infrastructure but also AI thinking through the universities

00:37on which you can have a pool of students and entrepreneurs and innovators who can join in

00:44to create the next innovation on AI.

00:47So, we provide them with a layer of enablers including compute to quality data to research

00:55and probably also talent to do it.

00:58I think this is a big thing when you empower startups to actually, because these are the startups

01:03who will ultimately go ahead and expand the use of AI technologies.

01:06How has been the response ride?

01:08We are just beginning, right? Because I think as we speak, we see a huge departure on how startups function.

01:17Because for the last 15-20 years, we had an app-based economy where everyone would be developing a new app.

01:25And the reason it flourished in the West and to a certain degree even in India was because there was a hyperscale.

01:31There was a large number of customers who could acquire that.

01:34But I think as we speak, that model would shift into building into a layer of artificial intelligence.

01:41And we need to create something different, which we probably don't know right now.

01:48But I think it is a bet that we all have to take.

01:50Is it only for the startups and researchers and everybody else in Nepal?

01:56Or do you see collaborations happening inter-nation as well?

01:59I think, you know, that's a brilliant point.

02:01Because the reason I'm here is because, you know, there is a prospect of collaboration.

02:06For example, India has built its own model on language with Basini,

02:12where there is a translation of almost all the languages that you have.

02:17And as a part of the 22 scheduled languages, Nepali also falls into that category.

02:27So what has already been done in India is, as a part of the language of India,

02:31Nepali is also the part of that language stack, right?

02:35But it does not reflect on the dialects that we speak in Nepal.

02:38So the idea is if we can collaborate and pick that up.

02:42So half of our work is already done in terms of the data and the model.

02:47So we can build on top of that and then design,

02:50have the startups design solutions around that.

02:53So this would be a very unique use case between India and Nepal,

02:56if we manage to do that, to build a new model of collaboration

03:02and a unique way of looking at how we can have a cross-country,

03:07data sharing plus sharing of our vocabularies,

03:12because we have a similar cultural context and a very similar language.

03:15And of course, we use the same script.

03:17What are the challenges you faced initially when you were starting this?

03:21Because of course, you had to do a lot of outreach to startups and other researchers.

03:25Yeah, I faced a lot of challenges in my past life as the founder of Tutu,

03:29because that is where we had to create a layer of disruption in technology in a country

03:35where people didn't use mobile phone back in 2060.

03:38I mean, they use mobile phone, but the access to smartphones weren't that big.

03:41People were not using Google Maps and also, you know,

03:45the proliferation of mobile data network was not as big.

03:50And right now, with the new initiative, I'm just reaching out and I'm yet to face larger hurdles.

03:58Hopefully, I don't.

03:59But if there are any, I have the learning from the past to negotiate those hurdles

04:03and let's see how it goes.

04:05Will you also be participating in the AI Impact Summit that India will host?

04:09I hope so.

04:10I hope so.

04:11Do you see a lot of co-founders, CEOs from Nepal as well?

04:15I hope there would be a lot of co-founders and CEOs coming to this summit.

04:20The reason being that we're next door, right?

04:24And a lot of initiatives that are happening in India around impact

04:28and which this summit is also about would resonate well with what we are doing.

04:35So the kind of challenges that you face in, say, Kathmandu, the city that I live in,

04:39is also the challenges that you face in a city like Kanpur in India.

04:42The kind of challenges that you face in other parts of India,

04:47whether that you deal with agriculture or access to health or education.

04:53I think there are a lot of similarities and we can learn from one another

04:57and possibly we can piggyback into one another's innovations to take that forward from there.

05:02When you talk about learning from one another,

05:04one of the important factors is the DPI and there's a lot of inspiration drawn from India

05:09because the India stack is advanced and a lot of people are talking about it.

05:13Yeah.

05:14DPI is an excellent idea because it is not just technology, but it's a framework, right?

05:19So when you have this framework and the beauty of DPI is that it is open, it's transparent,

05:24which means that if you create a layer of AI on top of that,

05:29you're basically reaching out to the large number of people who didn't otherwise have access to technology before.

05:36But the challenge, of course, remains, how do we proliferate on the DPI itself, right?

05:41So I think if you talk about AI and building onto what DPI is as a digital public infrastructure,

05:50I think it's about time where we graduate from digital DPI as in digital public infrastructure

05:55to possibly digital public intelligence.

05:57So it's the same philosophy, but the layer of intelligence is added on top of that.

06:02So that's very exciting.

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